Category: TV

Agatha Raisin – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Agatha Raisin is lightweight British comedy-drama.

Mostly comedy, I’d say. 

A high-powered PR executive retires to rural Biddestone, Wiltshire. 

Another fish out of water scenario. Agatha wears expensive high heels around town. Through the mud. 😀

Biddlestone had not had a murder — until Agatha Raisin moved there. Now they have one / week.

Season 1 first aired in 2016. 

My favourite character is Jason Barnett as the dimwitted DCI Denzel Wilkes.  His sidekick, Matt McCooey as DC Bill Wong is good too.

It’s quite formulaic. If you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all.

The Lincoln Lawyer – season 2

On By Rick McIn books, TV1 Comment

I’d say the 2nd season is even better than the first.

I like everything about this TV show.

Everything BUT — for me — Matthew McConaughey is still the Lincoln Lawyer.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Mickey in the TV adaptation. And he just doesn’t match the character in the book nearly as well as McConaughey.

The Lincoln Lawyer is attorney Mickey Haller, half-brother of Michael Connelly’s mainstay character Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch.

In season 2 he’s rich, famous, and successful. 

My favourite character is Becki Newton as Lorna Crain, Haller’s 2nd wife and office manager.  GREAT LEGS … say some sexist macho assholes. 🙄.

Her fiancé, Angus Sampson as Dennis “Cisco” Wojciechowski is excellent too.

ALSO Neve Campbell as Maggie (McFierce) McPherson.

It was good to see Elliott Gould as David “Legal” Siegel, Mickey’s mentor and a friend of his father.  He’s age-85 now.

10 episodes. All good.  Terrific finish.

Dalgliesh – season 2

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

Classy. 

Everything that’s good about television out of the U.K.

Dalgliesh is a British crime drama television series, based on the Adam Dalgliesh novels by PD James. Bertie Carvel stars as the title character, an enigmatic detective–poet. …

… investigating complex crimes in mid-1970s England.

Dalgleish is dour, understated, calm, quiet. Very British.

Season 2 is three movie length stories, each broken into two parts of about 45min.

He drives a 1971 Jaguar E–Type. That’s one bit of flash.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Under the Vines – season 1

On By Rick McIn food, TV1 Comment

Charming and heartwarming. 

Yet another fish-out-of-water comedy.

Like Green Acres. 😀

Under the Vines is a New Zealand comedy drama television series …

Two step-cousins — Australian socialite Daisy Munroe and UK lawyer Louis Oakley — inherit a declining New Zealand vineyard, Oakley Wines …

The joint heirs have no experience with wine-making or New Zealand rural culture, and each is having financial, social, and existential crises. They become interested in the winery’s future but frequently don’t see eye-to-eye. …

Some nudity. Randy Kiwis.

General nonsense.

I really like Trae Te Wiki as Tippy (Isabella) Bidois: Oakley’s young, adventurous and newly successful vintner/winemaker. 

Some funny lines.

Why are they so loud?

They are Australian. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Another good Aussie TV series.

This is a sequel to Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which I have not yet seen.

Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (2019) is set in Melbourne, mid-1960s.

The show revolves around the personal and professional life of Peregrine Fisher, … who inherits a fortune when the famous aunt she never knew goes missing over the highlands of New Guinea.

Peregrine sets out to become a world-class private detective in her own right, guided by a group of exceptional women in The Adventuresses’ Club, of which her aunt was also a member.

Each episode is about 80 minutes.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Slow Horses – season 3

On By Rick McIn TV1 Comment

Weakest season, so far.

The plot incredibly unbelievable.

Who approved this script?

Still, Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, makes it worth watching.

For me it’s mostly a black comedy, an absurd workplace shambles.

But at times, it’s almost le Carré level espionage drama. 

People still LOVE this show after 3 seasons.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Reacher – season 2

On By Rick McIn books, TV1 Comment

Season 1 was great.

Reacher – season 1

But season 2 was even better, IMHO. 

YES it’s ultra violent. TRUE – dozens of bad guys die because they never seem to shoot straight. 😀

Too much Mission Impossible silliness, of course.

But Reacher is iconic. A true original.

In season 2, Reacher reunites with his U.S. Army Military Police unit, the Special Investigators, when one of their own is murdered under mysterious circumstances.

Some fans of his books like me wonder WHERE they can go in season 3?

A letdown is likely.  Most of the Reacher books are like season 1 ➙  He wanders into a random town. Somehow gets involved in a big fight with a bad guy.  Wins without car chases or gun fights.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Agatha Raisin – TV show and Book

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

Funny. Dumb. 😀

This 90min pilot went on to 4 seasons through 2022.

Agatha Raisin is a British comedy-drama television program, based on M. C. Beaton’s book series of the same name about a former PR agent who solves crime mysteries in the Cotswolds village of Carsely.

… broadcast as a pilot titled Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death 2014 …

… soon finds herself a suspect in a murder case when she enters the village’s annual quiche-making competition in an attempt to ingratiate herself with the community. She sets out to clear her name and solve the mystery of the quiche of death.

This is a case where the TV show is better than the source book – Quiche of Death (1992).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Mystery Road – season 3

On By Rick McIn TV1 Comment

Mystery Road – seasons 1 & 2 were excellent.

Mystery Road: Origin is season 3.  A prequel. Good — but not as good as the first two.

The backstory of Mark Coles Smith as Jay Swan, a young detective in the Aussie outback 1999.

Later, in the other two seasons, Aaron Pedersen plays Jay Swan.

My favourite character, by far, is Grace Chow as Cindy Cheung, a young, enthusiastic, and positive police officer. She was truly the only one I could cheer for consistently.

The acting is very strong. Brave. 

But the story line simply too hard to follow, for me. At the end of the series I had to search out explainers.

I probably won’t watch season 4.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jack Irish – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Entertaining and funny. Black humour.

Jack Irish  an Australian television drama series (2012) …

Guy Pearce as Jack Irish, a criminal defense lawyer turned debt collector and troubleshooter.  …

Very popular. Skillfully done.

Jack is hopeless as any kind of action hero.

Still, not having seen any of the Jack Irish films, I was confused by most of season 1.

Former girlfriend Linda takes a job in Manila. Get’s involved with a dangerous, mysterious gang. Rescues a child.

Jack has something of a new girlfriend, Sarah, and tries to find out who killed her sister.  A charismatic mega-church pastor seems to be responsible.

I have to admit, the last episode did finally wrap up where they were going with this. An interesting plot. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.